Sasuke's Vulnerability
by hardtofathom
Summary: Oneshot: "Sakura. I don't have the heart to love you."—In which Sasuke thought he was undeserving of Sakura's love and it will only leave him vulnerable. (My own take on Chapter 693's events. Warning! Spoilers ahead.)


**Title:** Sasuke's Vulnerability

**Words:** 2,181

**World:** Manga/Canonverse

**Pairing:** Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura

**Theme:** Drama and Angst

**A/N: **This ship will be the death of me. That angst and drama though. ಥ‿ಥ I literally cried while reading Chapter 693 and it gave me a lot of feels.

So **WARNING!** Spoilers ahead. Don't read further if you haven't caught up with the current chapters of the manga.

**/edit:** To that salty coward Guest reviewer- Let's see about that. Commenting as Guest on my story, you're the one who's pathetic. "Saske doesn't care about her.!" yadayadayada Well, gee thanks! Your salty tears taste delicious! Cry Moar. It fuels us SS shippers :)

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><p><em>I can't even look directly at your tearful eyes.<em>

_Because I'm sorry._

_My heart hurts._

_What should I say first?_

_I really can't think of any._

_My heart that keeps forgetting you._

_Thinking of erasing our love._

_._

_._

_._

The smell of the battlefield lingers. A mix of smoke and burnt cement was lingering.

The dark-haired Uchiha was standing across Uzumaki Naruto. And here lies the beginning of their confrontation.

Uchiha Sasuke first moved, he slowly faced his now opponent, Naruto.

"Naruto, it seems you still don't understand what I'm conveying. You're the former jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox and of course its chakra still resides inside your body, when I say I plan to eliminate all of them, it includes you." Sasuke seethed.

His sharingan and rinnegan eyes were still the same angry-driven eyes from before. His tone was mellow yet intimidating.

Upon announcing that resentment-driven tone, Haruno Sakura and her former sensei, Hatake Kakashi was startled.

"According to the Sage, I don't even need your chakra to release the Infinite Tsukuyomi, as long as I have all the tailed-beasts captured." Sasuke continued.

Still, Naruto was silent and listening deeply to his best friend's spiteful speech.

The dark-haired Uchiha continued further and his aura darkened from before. His rinnegan eyes were glaring deathly at his former best friend's form.

-_Silence_.

.

.

.

"In other words, you will need to die." The last Uchiha survivor growled.

After hearing those words, the pinkette's emerald orbs widened in shock. She can't still believe that after all they have gone through from the battle from Madara and Kaguya, their dark-haired teammate was still his stubborn self.

_Sasuke-kun. Why?_

"I won't let you get away with this, don't you realize that? Sasuke!?" Naruto spatted back.

Then a familiar voice was heard, it was their former sensei.

"Wait! Sasuke!" Kakashi shouted across the battlefield.

But Kakashi slumped to the ground, he can still feel the after effects of the sharingan and that made his body to be in a weakened state. He stumbled before making his first step.

Sakura turned her body towards him.

"Sensei!" Sakura responded back on concern.

The pink-haired kunoichi went to her former sensei's side. Her eyes were still glued to the two individuals across the battlefield.

Sasuke's back was completely turned against her. Her dark-haired teammate's form was completely turned against her.

_Just like that same night at Konoha. _

That night which she treasured ever since he left the village.

_His evil aura still haunts her up to this day. _

_Even after now, _

_I can't still do anything to save you from your own darkness,_

_Sasuke-kun. _

_._

_._

_._

_I feel so pathetic just thinking about it. _

_._

_._

_._

_But…please… hear me one last time. _

Sakura can't stop her tears from falling. Her heart was aching and it feels like it's about to explode. She needs to express her feelings or else she doesn't know what to do.

Tears keep flowing from her emerald-colored eyes. _It feels nostalgic, just like that time when you left me on that cold-hardened bench. _Sakura mused inwardly.

_Why are you doing this, Sasuke-kun?_

Here we go again.

_I don't care if my feelings wouldn't reach you, but I still needed to try._

You're rejecting my feelings again.

_My heart is about to burst and I don't know what to do._

If I could just forget these insane feelings.

_If loving you will be the death of me, then so be it. _

I would like to try to forget my feelings for you.

**BUT I CAN'T.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

There's no turning back, Sakura stood up from the ground and she shouted at the top of her lungs,

"The truth is…I've always known in my heart, there was nothing I could have done for you. But I love you…! No matter what's happened, I still care about you more than I can bear. If I could have taken all your pain…onto myself to comfort you. I would have…and here we are again, and still all I can do is sit here and cry. I'm so pathetic." Sakura bawled at the top of her lungs.

She doesn't care if her former sensei and Naruto could hear her pathetic and depressing pleas for their lost cause teammate.

Sakura's emerald orbs were still staring at the Uchiha survivor's form. Although his back was completely turned against her, he could still see her from his peripheral vision.

The dark-haired Uchiha thwarted his tracks from leaving the scene. Once again, Sasuke heard those sorrow-filled pleas of his pink-haired teammate.

Sasuke's expression turned into a mix of woe and guilt. His deathly glare before turned into shame and desperation.

Of course, he was still masking his inner emotions properly, but there is one thing that his comrades had failed to know, that Sasuke's cold demeanor changed into something out of concern.

Concern for her.

..

...

...

_Don't do this Sakura. _

_Don't make this harder for the both of us._

He felt pang of guilt upon hearing her love-driven confession. Somewhere inside his bleak mulishness heart, he knows that this annoying teammate of his can tear up his long- gloomy wall inside his aching heart.

You're foolish. You don't have the heart to love.

Sasuke's Inner chided.

_Don't listen to her. _

_Love makes you weak, and weakness makes you vulnerable. _

_Sakura, don't make this harder for the both of us. _

_Stop._

Her faulty voice resonates through your ears.

_I don't want to listen to anymore of her pleas. _

_Please Sakura. _

_Stop this._

_..._

...

..

With your almighty self-deluded attitude, you can still feel her compassion for you.

_Don't deny it yourself. _

You're a fool for stopping and listening to her sniveling remarks.

What's wrong Sasuke?

Just by hearing her voice, you feel numb and emasculated?

Why? You have sealed that damned heart of yours a long time ago.

Maybe you're becoming weak and vulnerable? Just by hearing her voice, you let yourself delude to the make-believe fantasy that she will heal your tortured aching soul?

Don't you want to eradicate all the evils in this world? _Break her heart again._

Don't let them fool you with those heart-warming words. _Why do you still care about her?_

She's just an annoying reminder of your crippled past. If you don't do this right now, pain will come after you again. Do you want that to happen?

_Push her away._

_Push them away._

_Sealed that enfeeble heart of yours._

_.._

_..._

Sasuke's feet was shaken by the weight of Sakura's words.

_After all these years, you're still damned annoying. _

Her tears continued to drip from her sobering eyes. Naruto was startled and so as Kakashi. They could feel the pinkette's love declaration's intensity.

There are endless nights where Sakura reminisced that night. When Sasuke thanked her before leaving their village.

That single memory of him was one of the most unforgettable things she can remember and just by Sasuke thanking her that night made her hopeful that someday, maybe someday, her feelings for Sasuke would reach him.

But she was wrong.

_Again._

"But…Sasuke-kun. If I still have a place somewhere in your heart, no matter how small it may be…then please…I'm begging you don't slip any further away." Sakura whimpered across the battlefield.

Her tears continued to drop from her watery emerald glaze.

_I can't do anything, I'm so pathetic. _Sakura's Inner-self mused.

The Uchiha survivor continued to listen, Sasuke turned his body slowly at her form and even they're far away from each other, he was still hearing her sobbing pleas completely.

...

...

_.._

_You still love me after all these years. _

_What a fool._

I'm also a fool.

_Loving me won't make you happy._

I'm dangerous for you.

_Please don't make this harder for the both of us. _

Stay away and forget me.

_Stop crying._

You're damn annoying for saying those words to me. You think you can fazed me with your heart-wrenching words.

Stop deluding yourself. But please, stop crying because of me.

_What did you see in me, Sakura? _

All I ever done for you is nothing but pain and grief.

_You're better without loving me._

I don't need your love, please just stop.

Stop crying…

Just…

Stop…

And this time, Sasuke realized that his soul was curse for eternity. He doesn't want to feel this way. Not with her. She was pure, innocent and desirable.

_But not with yourself, you can't see yourself with her. You can't make her happy. _

_Love makes you vulnerable. _

_Love makes you weak. _

_Love makes you hate. _

But it's too late, that pink-haired girl's pure and innocent feelings had already reached you.

And that annoys the hell out of you? Isn't it?

Yes.

I don't want to hurt you anymore, Sakura.

Please just stay far away from me.

..

...

...

The Uchiha survivor exhaled and he slowly turns around. Sakura was still sobbing and when she heard Sasuke's voice. She briskly glared at his rinnegan eye.

"You really are damn annoying." Sasuke murmured.

A mix of defeat and self-condemnation was seen on his wavering expression for her. His eyebrows furrowed and his lips moved upward into a grimly smirk of defeat.

_You're still damn annoying for loving someone like me._

He then quickly activated his rinnegan and slowly looked into her faltering emerald eyes. Sasuke casted a deadly genjutsu on her, that made her tremble in fear. He wanted to show Sakura that loving him will just cause her more pain and anguish.

He casted an illusion she won't forget.

_Don't let her sway you with her unnerving words._

_I don't want to hurt you. _

_Don't make me do it._

It's just an illusion, but showing her the hard way.

I hope she will realize what a fool of her to fall for somebody like me.

The former kyuubi container and their former sensei had noticed that Sasuke casted a genjutsu on their pink-haired teammate.

Sakura slumped towards the ground. With her closed eyes, her tears were still visible.

"You don't have to go that far! You didn't need to use a genjutsu on Sakura-chan." Naruto spatted back across the battlefield.

"If I left her like that, she would have come after us. She would have gotten in the way." Sasuke replied back. Still his eyes were still fixated to the pink-haired kunoichi.

A mix of nostalgia and shame was seen on his expression, but Sasuke completely masked his façade with ambiguity.

_This is for the better; I wouldn't risk her following us and intervening our fight. She did that before and who knows what will happen to her if she was caught by our deadly jutsus._

Then Sasuke heard their former sensei say something.

"Sakura, she never stopped wanting to save you." Kakashi drawled. A mix of frustration and anger was seen on his face.

Even himself, he can't do anything to stop his former student.

"Was she having fun in her little make-believe fantasy of true love? As for me, I have absolutely no reason to love her and likewise, I can see no reason why she would love me." Sasuke uttered scornfully.

_That's right, even if her love was true and pure, she will just get hurt in the end. I don't have the heart to love you, Sakura neither you have no reason to love me. I'm sorry._

..

...

But Sasuke was wrong.

Love has no bounds.

Love has no reason.

You can't reason with love.

It's illogical.

But you still continue to be your stubborn self.

Your self-righteous asshole self.

_I can't love her; I don't have a heart to love her back._

_..._

_.._

"She only wanted to save you! This girl here…who you've been more than ready to kill..Even now, she's crying tears filled with thoughts of you… Becayse she loves you so much it's breaking her heart!" Kakashi continued.

Upon hearing those words, the Uchiha survivor once again had reminisce his deceased family.

Sakura's love for him made Sasuke realize that her love reminded him of his love for his deceased family.

He doesn't have the capability to love.

He doesn't want to feel that pain again.

Love comes with pain.

_I'm afraid of love, because it involves things that are beyond our understanding; it sheds such a brilliant light, but the shadow it casts frightens me.*_

"That's probably just…chains from a failed past that she's feeling." Sasuke murmured quietly.

He already wasted his time talking about this nonsensical love things and this made him distracted from his ultimate goal. Sasuke briskly prepared himself to go away from the battlefield.

"No matter what happens, I would bring Sasuke home. Sensei, you should know my ninja way. I'm going now!" Naruto uttered with confidence.

The silent Naruto decided to break the silence and reassured their former sensei. After reassuring their former sensei, Naruto quickly followed the Uchiha survivor's tracks.

_It all in your hands now. Naruto._

And Kakashi can only hope for the best based on Naruto's assuring heart-wrenching words.

.

.

.

fin

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><p><strong>PS. <strong>_*It's a quote taken from Paulo Coelho's Brida._

_Not mine._


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